Introduce layers in poverty measurement

This is with reference to the article "Convenience of poverty lines" (16-31 January, 2025). Poverty is not like atmospheric pressure, which can be scaled down with high-precision instruments. It is a matter of deprivation. Poverty is also highly misunderstood. At one extreme, poverty means no food, no clothes, bad health and inadequate shelters; in essence a dearth in common and customary amenities. One can recognise this poverty. But, even if a person's conditions are only a notch above this level, their situation slides through the slick fingers of all the measurement of figures and wielders of statistics.

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To get out of the poverty puzzle, the best course of action should simply be to publish the distribution of population by different expenditure categories and let different entities, including state governments, choose their own cutoff expenditure levels for the purpose of identifying the beneficiaries of anti-poverty programmes. If some states want to opt for high poverty lines and can muster revenues required to assist their identified poor, it would certainly be their prerogative to do so.

JAYDEV JANA

KOLKATA

Reiterate need for sustainable development